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Would you want a university to impact your community the way that the
University of Pittsburgh has impacted Oakland? Would you want university
administrators to take ownership of 90 buildings in your community, build
8,000 dormitory beds, increase enrollment to 27,000 students, persuade
state authorities to invoke eminent domain thus evicting you and your
neighbors from your homes so that university buildings could be erected,
give your residential organizations a paltry $23,000 a year in direct
funding, and then have them tell you to start a Neighborhood Improvement
District to resolve your problems such as litter, trash and binge drinking?
These are just a few questions that should be asked of any Pitt administrator,
staff or faculty member who claims that Pitt has benefitted the community
of Oakland.

The time has come for new leadership
at the University of Pittsburgh and the end of the University’s
never-ending expansion in Oakland.

There is a fundamental principle in
life, which says that the means to an end are more important than the
end itself. The educational and medical fields play an important role
in job growth and sustaining our local economy. However, did Dr. Thomas
Starzl, a pioneer in liver transplants, as well as other doctors and
researchers at the University, need to witness the near destruction of
the culture and heritage of the community in order for them to accomplish
their innovative work? Certainly not!

Martin Luther King Jr. once remarked: “Segregation
is the burden of black people and the shame of America.” I would
like to apply that to the current situation by saying, “Never-ending
expansion is the burden of Oakland residents and the shame of the University
of Pittsburgh.”

For the past several years, our grassroots movement has called for the
resignation of Pitt Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg. We sought Mr. Nordenberg's
resignation when we experienced his indifference to the pain and suffering
of Oakland's longtime residents and his lack of compassion and commitment
to ending that misery.

In October 2012 during the One World Summit convention, we held signs
on Sixth Street Downtown and in front of the Cathedral of Learning that
called for the chancellor's resignation. In December 2012, the same sentiment
was expressed in the "Time for New Leadership" message that was
placed in the University Times publication, and in public comments before
Pittsburgh City Council. We again expressed that sentiment in April of
this year with "Nordenberg Must Resign" messages in The Pitt
News, in public comments made to members of the city council and in a letter
to the editor in this newspaper.

While others may praise the chancellor for his resignation, our hope is
that the chancellor will move his retirement date forward one year from
Aug. 1, 2014, to Aug. 1, 2013. The community of Oakland, which is severely
impacted by the university's presence, must have a voice in the selection
of the new chancellor. That new chancellor should bring forth a new consciousness,
which adheres to the belief that human dignity must be the highest priority
of a university.